Today is a beautiful fall day. I sat outside on the deck eating a bowl of cereal for lunch, and while I was sitting there, three biplanes flew overhead in a triangle formation. You don’t see that everyday! We just got back from a four-day weekend, and it was good to walk through the yard and garden to check everything out and see what needs to be done. Most of the day has been spent unpacking and putting things away and washing clothes.
We had our first annual family reunion this weekend. It was tons of work, but everyone had a blast! I really want to do it again next year. We all went to the mountains where we stayed in Daddy’s two houses. Since Daddy had only one sister, and Mama was an only child, our family is really pretty small, so there were only 18 of us. That was enough to have a real party but not so many as to be unmanageable. Besides my parents and us, there were my two sisters and their families, Sean and Misty, my cousin Dave and his wife Janice and one grandchild, and my other cousin Deb and her husband Rick. My sister’s son Blake also brought his girlfriend. (A very serious girlfriend.) In addition to the people, there were four dogs running around. We had not seen Deb and Rick in seven years, so it really was good to get together with them. Deb is a real hoot, and always keeps us all laughing.
Since I work only part time and Mama isn’t able to do much, a lot of the getting ready fell on me. Doug and I went up a day ahead to clean house and make up the beds. Daddy was working feverously to finish up the basement bedroom for Sean and Misty, so Doug spent most of his time helping him put in doors.
My sisters and I planned the meals and brought most of the food. Daddy grilled hamburgers one night and pork chops another. One morning we all went out to eat at a breakfast buffet. In three days we devoured a carrot cake, two sour cream coffee cakes, a cheesecake, banana nut bread, and an oreo cookie dessert. And that’s just the sweet stuff! There was also lots of ham, hotdogs, bean soup, egg casseroles, pastries, pork and beans, slaw, and salad. We ate so much that I won’t get on the scales for a couple of days!
We were never bored. We all huddled around a card table putting a puzzle together the first afternoon. We also played games – Scrabble (I won!), Phase 10, Monopoly, and Sequence. On Sunday we went to a festival at the folk art school. We watched Georgia lose to Tennessee (sigh) one night and rented the movie RV on pay-per-view the other. We laughed ourselves silly.
The weather was beautiful. No one got hurt or sick, unlike a long ago Christmas vacation that involved three trips to the hospital! The only negative was the four hours I spent thinking my son wasn’t coming because he got most of the way up there before having to turn around and go back to lock up his workplace. That, and Georgia losing. But as Kevin said, in the overall scheme of things, his life wasn’t going to be affected one bit by a football game! And Sean got there and had a good time. We all did.
It felt really good to be surrounded by family for a whole weekend. I was reminded of how important family really is. Friends come and go over the course of a lifetime, but your family will always be there for you. There is a bond between members of a family that can’t be seen, but is definitely felt by all. Every family needs to get away from their everyday cares and just enjoy being together once and a while. This whole reunion was Daddy’s idea, and I sure am glad he had it.
After the cousins left yesterday, we started cleaning up, and that was another big job. Doug and I were the last to leave after spending the day washing sheets and towels, and cleaning the floors and bathrooms. We got home around supper time last night, exhausted, but feeling good about the way it all went. I would say our first annual family reunion was a huge success!
